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IPA phoneme \ɜː\
In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ɜː/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "nurse", "turn", "word" and "girl" (/nɜːrs, tɜːrn, wɜːrd/ and /gɜːrl/). At the advice of Clive Upton the Concise Oxford Dictionary altered the British tradition and now uses /əː/ instead of /ɜː/; later Oxford Dictionaries Online followed the same convention.Oxford Dictionaries Online, Key to pronunciations (British and World English dictionary). See əː as in h''er''. Linguist Jack Windsor Lewis said "This has the advantage of reducing the total number of unfamiliar symbols to be assimilated by the general user". However his verdict is "as things are, it doesn't now seem worthwhile changing what we have".IPA vowel symbols for British English in dictionaries, Section 7. /əː/ versus /ɜː/. Some American dictionaries use /ɜ/ or /ɝ/ instead of /ɜː/. Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary uses /ɚ/ both for /ər/ (unstressed) and /ɜːr/ (stressed). /ɝ/ and /ɚ/ are called r-colored vowels. Silent /r/ In Received Pronunciation /ɜːr/ is pronounced ɜː or əː unless it is followed by a vowel, i.e. the "r" is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel. In General American the "r" is always pronounced, either as ɜɹ or ɝ. There are places in the United Kingdom where the "r" is pronounced, and places in North America where it is not pronounced. Common words Some common words containing /ɜ:/ include the following: * With "er": certain - concern - determine - her - nerve - perfect - person - service - term - verb - were * With "ear": early - earn - earth - heard - learn - search * With "ur": burn - hurt - murder - return - surface - Thursday - turn - urban * With "ir": bird - birthday - circle - dirty - firm - girl - shirt - sir - skirt - stir - third - thirsty - thirty * With "or": word - work - world - worse - worst - worth *Others: journalist - journey Less common words * With "er": certify - fern - herb - herd - Mercury /ˈmɜːrkjəriː/ - merge - kerb - stern - thermal * With "ear": pearl * With "ur": curb - curly - fur - surgeon - urgent * With "ir": Birmingham /ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/ - fir - flirt * With "or": attorney - worm * With "our": courteous * With "eur": connoisseur /ˌkɒnəˈsɜːr/ - entrepreneur /ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜːr/ Since in American English /ɜː/ is always followed by /r/, the pronunciation of hors d'oeuvre (appetizer) has an unwritten /r/: /ˌɔːr ˈdɜːrv/. In Received Pronunciation the /r/ is not pronounced. See http://cheezburger.com/6840806912 for a phonetic misspelling of hors d'oeuvre. Spelling anomaly *colonel /ˈkɜːrnəl/ Homophones *birth - berth; colonel - kernel; earn - urn; fir - fur; heard - herd; tern - turn. These words don't rhyme *early - dearly; heard - beard; were - here; worm - storm; Variant pronunciations *deterent: /dɪˈterənt, dɪˈtɜːrənt / /ɜː/ and /ʌ/ When Received Pronunciation has the sequence /ʌːrV/ (with V any vowel, as in hurry), General American has the sequence /ɜːrV/ (hurry rhymes with furry). This is called the hurry-furry merger.Wikipedia. English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ — Hurry-furry merger. *RP /ʌ/, GA /ɜː/: borough /ˈbʌrə, ˈbɜːrəʊ / - concurrence - concurrent - courage - currant - currency - current - hurry - nourish - occurrence - thorough /ˈθʌrə, ˈθɜːrəʊ / - worry *RP and GA /ɜː/: blurry - concurring - furry - occurring - preferring - referral - referring - stirring Six ways to spell "sir" *sirloin - sermon - search - surgeon - certain - circle Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1 Spanish /ɜː/ is completely foreign to Spanish speakers. In the case of cognates, they often pronounce them as in Spanish. For example, urgent pronounced as ,}} virtual as }} and perfect as r.fɪkt/|Correct pronunciation is /ˈpɜːr.fɪkt/}}.}} In the case of native English words, the Spanish adaptations normally use a spelling pronunciation, as in "sterling" translated to esterlina or "flirt" translated to flirtear. This habit is often used when speaking English, such as pronouncing "bird" similar to "beard" or "word" similar to "ward". References See also *Decoding exercises: "urV" and "urrV" *Pronunciation exercises: / / vs /ɜː/ External links *British Library: Learning - Sounds Familiar? Vowel \ʌɜ\ ʌɜ